Colistin banned in animal food industry                                                                    

List of threatened species gets longer a year before prevention target                 

Gujarat: One case of Chandipura virus infection detected                                      

One Stop Crisis Centre                                                                                                

Ramanujan Machine                                                                                                     

Hangul fawn-hind ratio touches lowest-ever level                                                  

Colistin banned in animal food industry

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued an order prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of colistin and its formulations for food-producing animals, poultry, aqua farming and animal feed supplements.

            More in the news:

• Activists across the country has welcomed this move as a massive victory for the movement against antimicrobial resistance.

• According to experts,the recent step would ensure that colistin does not enter the food people eat and thereby people don’t develop resistance to the antibiotic.        

Colistin use in India :

• The use of colistin as a growth promoter in food-animal production, such as in the poultry sector in India, is not new.

• In 2014, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based non-profit, had flagged misuse of antibiotics in poultry in the country.

• Colistin-resistant bacteria were found in food samples in India in meat, mutton, fish, fruits and vegetables in 2018.

  • Indiscriminate colistin use by several companies for raising poultry in India was also reported by an international news agency.

Colistin use worldwide :

• Globally, several countries have banned colistin for animal use.

• In China, for instance, colistin was banned for use in food animals in 2016 after mcr-1 gene, which confers resistance to colistin, was detected in food samples. 

• Japan and Malaysia also prohibit colistin use in food animals and Australia does not register colistin for use in food producing animals.

• Many countries, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and those of the European Union (EU), prohibit antibiotic use as growth promoters in animal feed.

                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu; Down To Earth

List of threatened species gets longer a year before prevention target

GS PAPER  - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• The latest update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species shows that more and more species assessed are being threatened with extinction.

Key highlights :

• The list assessed 1,05,732 species - the largest such assessment of species, out of which 28,338 species are threatened with extinction.

• The updated list brings out an alarming rate of decline of freshwater and deep sea species. For example, over 50 % of Japan’s endemic freshwater fishes are under the threat of extinction.
   

  • Wedgefishes and giant guitarfishes, collectively known as Rhino Rays because of their elongated snouts, have been listed as the ‘most imperilled marine fish families in the world’.

  • The main drivers of this decline are the loss of free flowing rivers and increasing agricultural and urban pollution.

• Close to 50% of the species assessed by IUCN have been put under the ‘Least Concern’ category. It means the rest 50% are under various degrees of decline.

• Of the total assessed, 873 are already extinct while 6,127 are critically endangered.

• This Red List update confirms the findings of the IPBES Global Biodiversity Assessment.

• The list clearly indicates that humans are overexploiting wildlife.

• According to the global Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020)’s Target 12, the extinction of known threatened species has to be ‘prevented’ by 2020. The target also includes an improvement in the conservation status of species.

                                                                                                                      Source :- Down To Earth

Gujarat: One case of Chandipura virus infection detected

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• Recently,four cases of suspected Chandipura virus infection were reported in Gujarat.

Chandipura Virus :

•  It was named Chandipura virus after the town in which the discovery was made and the virus was first isolated in Maharashtra.

• The Chandipura Vesiculovirus (CHPV) virus, first discovered by two virologists of the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV) in 1965, predominantly infects children.

• Chandipura virus is known to cause inflammation of the brain,progress rapidly from an influenza-like illness to coma and death.

• In 2003,Chandipura virus was responsible for an outbreak in southern India in which 329 children developed acute encephalitis and 183 died.

Transmission :

• The Chandipura Vesiculovirus (CHPV) spreads mainly through the bite of sand flies, and sometimes through mosquitoes.

  • Sand flies are found in mud and sand houses and mostly breed in the cracks of such houses.

• Cases of Chandipura virus are mostly reported during monsoon and pre-monsoon months, when the sand flies breed.

Symptoms :

•  sudden high fever accompanied by headache,

• convulsions and vomiting sometimes leading to unconsciousness.

Treatment :

• There is no specific medicine for its treatment.

• However with timely detection,hospitalisation and symptomatic treatment is given to the patient which could help save lives.

Prevention :    

• Prevention is the best method to suppress CHPV infection.

• According to NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), for the containment of the disease transmitting vectors, it is essential to maintain good nutrition, health, hygiene and awareness in rural areas.

                                                                                                                        Source :- Indian Express

One Stop Crisis Centre

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Context :

• One stop centre is a centrally sponsored scheme of Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), for addressing the problem of violence against women.

One Stop Crisis Center :

• One Stop Centre(OSC) are centres established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) to support women affected by violence of any sort.

• It is a subscheme of umbrella scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of Women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog Yojana.

Objective :

• To provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces under one roof.

• To facilitate immediate, emergency and non - emergency access to a range of services including medical, legal, psychological and counselling support under one roof to fight against any forms of violence against women.

Funding :

• The scheme is funded through Nirbhaya Fund and the central government provides 100% financial assistance to the state governments /Union Territories administrations.

Services :

• One stop centres will be integrated with women helplines to provide following services:

  • Emergency response and rescue services.

  • Medical assistance.

  • Assistance to women in lodging the FIR.

  • Psycho- social support and counselling.

  • Legal aid and counselling.

  • Shelter

  • Video conferencing facility.

Background :

• The 12th Plan Working Group on Women’s Agency and Empowerment had recommended setting up of one stop crisis centres.

• Usha Mehra Commission, had recommended for the establishment of a “one-stop centre” to help victims of sexual assault and ensure speedy punishment to culprits.

                                                                                                                                       Source :- PIB

Ramanujan Machine

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Context :

• Scientists from Technion — Israel Institute of Technology have developed a concept they have named the Ramanujan Machine, after the Indian mathematician.

Ramanujan Machine :

• Ramanujan Machine is not really a machine but an algorithm, and performs a very unconventional function.

• The Ramanujan machine is more of a concept than an actual machine. It exists as a network of computers running algorithms dedicated to finding conjectures about fundamental constants in the form of continued fractions.

• The purpose of the machine is to come up with conjectures that humans can analyze and hopefully prove to be true mathematically.
   

  • Typically, people provide the input and the algorithm finds the solution. The Ramanujan machine reverses the process.So if a constant such as π is fed into the machine, it will generate a series whose value would lead towards π.

Conjectures:

• These are mathematical statements that are, as yet, unproven. New conjectures in mathematics, however, have been scarce and sporadic.
   

• The machine is created in the hope that their idea will inspire future generations of mathematicians.

                                                                                                                          Source :- Indian Express

Hangul fawn-hind ratio touches lowest-ever level

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• There has been an ‘alarming’ decline in the fawn-hind and stag-hind ratio of the hangul (Cervus hanglu) population in Kashmir, the latest census in the Valley has revealed.

Key Highlights :

• Exercise was conducted by the Department of Wildlife Protection, Jammu & Kashmir (DWLP) in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

• Fawn is a young deer in its first year and Hind is a female deer, over three years old and her counterpart, the mature male, is called a stag.

• The male-female and fawn-female ratios, is crucial for the management and conservation of deer populations.

• Although hangul is limited to the Dachigam Wildlife Sanctuary near Srinagar, but a small population has also been witnessed in Overa-Aru Wildlife Sanctuary in south Kashmir.

• The Kashmir stag is the state animal of Jammu and Kashmir and is the only surviving species of red deer in India.

• According to wildlife experts, understanding the overall declining trend in the hangul population and the reason for the imbalance in population structure, which includes alarming male-female and fawn-female ratios, is crucial for the management of deer populations.

                                                                                                                      Source :- Down To Earth

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